CFP: Critical Foodscapes: what does the
future hold for urban gardening?
A One Day Conference on July 7th 2016 at the University of Warwick
Confirmed Keynote: Dr Chiara Tornaghi (Centre for Agroecology Water and Resilience,
Coventry University)
Urban gardening has long promised radical alternatives to industrialised food production and the
organisation of modern urban spaces. Yet despite recent increases in popularity and a conspicuous
proliferation of its forms, urban gardening appears to have had minimal material influence on how we eat or
how we live.
It is now time to ask what the future holds for urban gardening. What evidence is emerging of urban
gardening’s social and environmental impacts? Can such forms really mitigate some of the major crises of
our times – from mental illness and unemployment to the unsustainability of our food systems – or do they
remain a fringe concern? And what changes – at the level of policy or grassroots mobilisation (or otherwise)
– are required to maximise the impact and reach of future iterations of urban gardening?
This conference seeks to put critical – but constructive – pressure on some of the assumptions which underlie
current theory and practice of urban gardening; as such, the conference organisers welcome papers
encompassing a broad range of approaches and perspectives (whether research-, practitioner- or participantorientated) considering the past, present and future of urban gardening. The conference will take the UK as
its main focus but will accommodate international perspectives where possible. Papers might address,
though not be limited to, the following topics:
 Community gardens
 Community supported agriculture
 Urban and peri-urban food production
 The cultural representation of urban
gardens
 Urban gardening and…
- local/national food policy
- grassroots activism
- food production
- mental health
- town planning
- education
- environmental sustainability
- economic sustainability
- emergency food aid
Please send 300 word abstracts and 100 word biography to Dr C Maughan (IAS Early Career Fellow,
University of Warwick) by Monday 11th April 2016: christopher.maughan@warwick.ac.uk.
Following the conference, delegates are encouraged to submit papers to a proposed special issue with the
journal, Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, subject to the peer-review process. For more information and
updates see the conference website.
Institute of Advanced Study
Millburn House, Millburn Hill Road
University of Warwick Science Park
Coventry CV4 8UW UK
T +44 (0) 24 76 150565
F + 44 (0) 24 76 150566
E IAS@warwick.ac.uk
www.warwick.ac.uk/ias